Recent Polish case law on industrial designs

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The District Administrative Court, which has the authority to hear complaints against decisions made by the Polish Patent Office in the field of industrial designs, has recently confirmed several important rules in this area.

The District Administrative Court, which has the authority to hear complaints against decisions made by the Polish Patent Office in the field of industrial designs, has recently confirmed several important rules in this area.

The court agreed with the doctrine that an industrial design’s novelty is determined by the disclosure of a design’s forms. Although the Polish Industrial Property Law does not express this explicitly, it must be assumed that a design is deemed novel if a previously undisclosed design or an earlier non-identical design does not exist.

Any new design that has individual character in its appearance, as a whole or as part of a product, that results from the features of, in particular, the lines, colours, shape, texture or materials of the product and its ornamentation, shall constitute an industrial design. A component part can be considered as a product and its design can be protected as an industrial design, but it must meet the conditions of protection required for each design—novelty, individual character and visibility.